History was made on Monday night at the London Palladium. Bayern Munich’s Harry Kane was named the 2026 Ballon d’Or winner ahead of Real Madrid’s Kylian Mbappé and Barcelona’s Lamine Yamal. Kane became the first English player to win the award since Michael Owen all the way back in 2001, and he also became the first Bayern player to win since Karl-Heinz Rummenigge did so in 1981, having also won it in 1980. To add to the history, the England skipper was also the first Bundesliga player to be given
the honor since Matthias Sammer back in 1996 when he played for Borussia Dortmund.
For months, there was intense debate as to whether or not Kane would actually have a realistic shot at beating out the likes of Yamal and Mbappé to win, with France Football’s previous history of snubbing Bayern players casting justifiable doubt. Franck Ribéry had an incredibly strong case to win back in 2013, and likewise Robert Lewandowski in 2020 and 2021. Still, though, Kane was very much the deserved winner and was able to celebrate winning the Ballon d’Or on home soil on a night where he was also named striker of the year. It’s impossible to argue against the incredible year he had for club and country, having tallied an unprecedented 73 goals and 8 assists for Bayern and England, collecting a domestic double and England’s best World Cup finish (third) since 1966 along the way.
France Football, L’Equipe, and the selected UEFA ambassadors and previous jury members that comprise the voting bodies for the Ballon d’Or have had their fair share of criticism throughout the years, especially in the wake of the era dominated by Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi. They’ve been labeled as populists in the past, but the amount of voting delegates who had Kane as their winner suggests that even what some consider to be a corrupt, sham election of sorts finally recognized a footballer who did all of his talking solely on the pitch, without any sort of media campaign or propaganda to help him get the award.
As such, different voting tabs from various delegates from around the world have been making the rounds as we are now more than 24 hours removed from the ceremony in London. For the votes from Colombia (Pache Andrade) and Australia (Daniel Garb), both nations had Kane listed in first place, though Colombia had Rodri in second place and Australia had Mbappé in second and Rodri in fourth (via @iMiaSanMia).
It goes to show that there were certainly differences amongst the top-five rankings from different voters, but Kane was unequivocally the deserved winner. Ironically enough, too, as far as fellow Bayern players are concerned, Colombia had Luis Díaz in eighth place and Australia had Michael Olise in fifth place in a show of recognition for just how good all three Bayern players were last season for club and country.
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